Ireland Tour Blog: Let’s put on a show!

by Nikki Hoffpauir

We’re starting our tour in Galway. It’s a gorgeous city, and our apartments are right on the harbor.

It’s an old building, with a lot of character. We girls get our own apartments with a large living room and kitchen that is perfect for entertaining, so it’s a shame that we can’t figure out how to make our oven work and have only a rudimentary handle on the stove.

I tried to make scrambled eggs the first day and after 20 minutes, I had to call it a failure and enjoy a breakfast of bagel with peanut butter. Thank heavens for the microwave and fridge, otherwise, I think we’d be eating out a lot more.

We started building at the Black Box on Sunday, after taking the rest of Saturday to get over the jet lag. The Black Box is a gigantic open warehouse like space with more than enough room. With set construction happening on one side, and black paint and wood staining on the other, we quickly got to work and made short order of the various platforms, stairs, railings, and tables that we needed to build from scratch for the set. Oh, and the putting together of the Ikea chairs—took about as long as anything from Ikea does.

I’ve spent most of my last two days painting things black, including myself. My paint clothes can practically stand up on their own, and I’d venture to say Josh and Kevin’s aren’t far off that either. But build is almost complete and the set is just about up.

The costume crew – known here as Team Fabulous–have done an amazing job getting things arranged and sorted and pressed up in the dressing rooms. Thony and Nuri found the rest of the props for us, and Kyle is focusing lights today. Sound is up and running so it’s starting to get very real.

More painting today, with the last of the assembly, and then cue-to-cue this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed for us that it goes well!